When deemed necessary or advisable to protect the official interests of the Legislative Assembly, one or more legislative committees, or one or more members of the Legislative Assembly, the Legislative Counsel Committee may direct the Legislative Counsel and the staff of the Legislative Counsel, or may retain any licensee of the Oregon State Bar, to appear in, commence, prosecute or defend any action, suit, matter, cause or proceeding in any court or agency of this state or of the United States. Expenses and costs incurred pursuant to this section may be paid by the committee from any funds available to the committee.
ORS 173.135
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Gearhart v. State of Oregon (1976)
Most recently applied in Chaimov v. Dept. of Admin. Services (October 2022)
1961 c.167 §32; 2005 c.22 §119; 2025 c.32 §93
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.